50 Days to More: Day Thirty-Six
50 Days to More
A Seven Week Campaign to Begin 2018
Week 6: Creating Success in Your Daily Routine
Day Thirty-Six (2/11/18): Establishing the Right Kind of Habits
Recommended Reading: 1 Peter 4:1-11
Last week we talked about the importance of hourly obedience. Now that you know how important it is to obey God, we must talk about how to do that practically everyday. The key to establishing this lifestyle is to have the right kind of habits in your life.
Often when we hear the word “habit” our minds go to something bad, perhaps to something like an addiction. But a habit can be a good thing! A habit is something that you naturally do without having to think about it. The more you do something, the easier it becomes. There are things you do habitually that at one time were very difficult. As an adult, hygiene can be the perfect example to this point. When you were younger you had to be taught how to brush your teeth and shower/bathe on your own. You even had to be reminded to do so. But now that this has become an established habit for you and part of your routine, it’s something you do without even thinking about it.
One of the critical keys to living a life of increase is that you must create a daily success routine. This may seem difficult to do at first, but it only gets easier the more you do it. Eventually it will be a routine that you don’t even have to think about, you will simply do it! Psychologists say that when you perform an act for 21 consecutive days without fail, it will become a habit.
Personal hygiene habits increase your health, self-confidence and social influence. Conversation habits strengthen relationships, and build confidence and integrity. Financial habits can create uncommon increase, by learning to save and invest.
The purpose of discipline is to birth a habit. God did not create us to be creatures of discipline but rather to be creatures of habit. Your current habits have created your current condition. And until you become so fed up with where you are now, you will never be motivated to change.
Here are 4 important facts you should know about your pain:
1. Your pain determines your motivation.
2. Your pain determines your focus.
3. Your pain determines whom you pursue.
4. Your pain determines the wisdom you believe is worthy of pursuit.
You cannot change your life until you change your habits. The pain that you feel, or the frustration you may feel about not yet achieving your destiny, can be used to fuel your fire! Don’t just sit back in frustration and give up on your dream. Make it happen by putting steps in place to pursue it daily.
Daily habits are necessary to create the future you desire. People do not decide their future; they decide the habits that determine their future. What you are doing daily is deciding what you are becoming in the future! Decide today to write down new habits you want to create and a plan of action to see it through!
“Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. For whoever find me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord.” Proverbs 8:33-35 (ESV)
Compiled by Christine Thompson & Meredith Hobbs
Taken from the Sermon Series “7 Steps to One Thousand Times More”
By Pastor Timothy Coats
Family First Church - Spring Hill, Florida